( dpa ) - The United States plans to help the Philippines keep children from exploitative labour with a 5.5-million-dollar grant, a US embassy statement said Wednesday.
The grant is to fund the education of children engaged in or at risk of being victims of abusive child labour practices, it said.
The money is to be channeled through the non-governmental organizations World Vision, Christian Children's Fund and the Education Research and Development Assistance Foundation.
"The initiative seeks to remove 18,000 children and prevent 12,000 children from hazardous work in sugar plantations, child domestic work, commercial sexual exploitation, mining and quarrying, garbage scavenging and pyrotechnics," the embassy said.
"The project is designed to increase awareness and strengthen attitudes of families and communities on the importance of education and the difference between acceptable child work and exploitative child labour," it added.
The US embassy said the project would be done in coordination with the Philippine government.